Secret to Happiness Only Takes One Minute a Day

12/29/2017 - Professor of Psychology Robert Emmons in Reader's Digest.

We already know that gratitude can help us sleep better, lower stress levels, and offer these other benefits. Now researchers are measuring just how much happier it can make you and how much effort it takes to get that bump.

“Clinical trials indicate that the practice of gratitude can have dramatic and lasting effects in a person’s life,” Robert A. Emmons, professor of psychology at UC Davis, told NBC Today. In a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Emmons found that when people kept a gratitude journal, they were happier. So much happier, in fact, after a month of daily journaling, they showed a 10 percent increase on subjective happiness—that’s the same jump in happiness you’d expect if you doubled your income.